The United States will be sending Ukraine more than 120 Phoenix Ghost tactical unmanned aerial systems, a small, newly developed drone that will require some training.
President Joe Biden announced another $800 million in military aid Thursday, bringing the total U.S. aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded to roughly $3.4 billion. A readout from the Pentagon said the U.S. will provide 121 of the drones, in addition to 72 155 mm howitzers and 72 tactical vehicles to tow those weapons.
The drones, which the Air Force began developing prior to Russia’s invasion, are “designed for tactical operations — in other words, largely, but not exclusively, to attack targets,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Thursday. “It, like almost all unmanned aerial systems, of course, has optics. So it can still — it can also be used to give you a sight picture of what’s seen, of course, but its principal focus is attack.”
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They were “developed for a set of requirements that very closely match what the Ukrainians need right now,” he explained, and they “will require a little bit of training,” Kirby added.
The Ghost drones are similar to switchblade drones, which the U.S. has already provided to Ukraine in previous military packages and trained them on.
Roughly 50 Ukrainian forces are currently outside the country receiving training on the howitzers.
“The training of some small number of Ukrainians on the howitzers has begun,” a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Wednesday. “It has begun in the country outside Ukraine. I am not going to tell you — be able to detail where this is happening, but it has happened. And we expect the training to last for about a week. And this is training the trainers. It’s a smallish number of Ukrainians, a little bit more than 50.”
Kirby confirmed Thursday that training on the howitzers has begun but not yet for the Ghost drones.
Russia’s military operation in Ukraine is now concentrated in the Donbas region in the east and in the city of Mariupol, a southeastern port city along the coast of the Sea of Azov. If they’re able to capture Mariupol, which they’ve already surrounded, Russian troops will have a land bridge connecting Crimea, which they annexed in 2014, and the Donbas region in the eastern part of Ukraine, which is where their military operation is currently focused.
The terrain in the Donbas is flat and has affected the choice of weapons the U.S. has decided to provide.
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“We expect in the Donbas — because of the terrain, because it’s open, because it’s flat, because it’s not as urban — we can expect the Russians to rely on long-range fire, artillery in particular,” Kirby continued, explaining that the Pentagon saw Russian troops moving in artillery units before traditional infantry units.
“So understanding that terrain, understanding the geography, understanding Russian doctrine here, we believed — but more critically, the Ukrainians believed — that they needed additional artillery firepower,” he added.
